Murder Plot Suspect Called `Coldblooded'

Schaumburg Man Held Without Bond

A Schaumburg man who is charged with plotting to have his former business partner killed even suggested ways in which the intended victim could be killed, an FBI official testified Friday.

The FBI said Burton E. Higham, 37, of 916 Gregory Lane told an FBI agent posing as a hit man that he could either use a lethal injection or alcohol poisoning to carry out the murder plot against his former business partner, William Yates.

During a hearing in U.S. District Court, Assistant U.S. Atty. Julia Getzels described Higham as "particularly coldblooded."

Upon learning that the murder had supposedly been carried out, Higham, who "knew the victim had three young children . . . showed no remorse," Getzels said.

Higham was arrested Thursday by the FBI after he paid the undercover agent $210 in expense money in the belief that Yates had been killed, officials said. Authorities said Higham had also agreed to pay the undercover agent $50,000 when he received the proceeds of a life insurance policy.

Higham was listed as the beneficiary on a $250,000 life insurance policy that he had taken out on Yates, the FBI said.

U.S. Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer rejected a request from Higham's court-appointed lawyer, Camille Conway, that Higham be confined to his own home or to his uncle's home in Florida pending trial, and ordered him held without bond.

Higham and Yates had been partners in Team Transport Inc. of Elk Grove Village. An acquaintance said the two operated as brokers linking up shippers with trucking companies and temporary warehouses.

State records show that the firm was incorporated in May 1993. The two had ceased doing business together by June 1994, said attorney Dale Deloriea, who was the registered agent for the firm.

Prosecutor Getzels said Higham was "an admitted, lifelong drug user."

She added, "His debts are numerous."

A witness at Friday's hearing, FBI Agent Gary Sebo, said a source told the FBI that Higham was looking for a hit man. FBI Agent James Martin, posing as a hit man named "Mr. White," first met with Higham on Jan. 17, Sebo said.

The undercover agent pretended to be following Yates to learn Yates' habits, Sebo said. On Thursday, the undercover agent met Higham in the Denny's Restaurant near Rohlwing Road and Lake Street in Addison. The agent told Higham that he had killed Yates in Yates' own bathroom and made it look like an accident, Sebo testified.